If you come across a word you don't know, do you take the time to look it up in the dictionary?

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - If you come across a word you don't know, do you take the time to look it up in the dictionary?

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:41:52 PM EDT

Say you are reading a book and a word comes up you don't know and can't fully understand given the context...what do you do?

Look it up?

Skip over it?

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:42:52 PM EDT

[#1]

Look it up.

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:43:02 PM EDT

[#2]

google

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:43:52 PM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:
google

This!

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:45:41 PM EDT

[#4]

Wiki

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:46:37 PM EDT

[#5]

It's good to see most people aren't lazy...or, at least, they say they aren't.

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:47:13 PM EDT

[#6]

If the computers on, google it, otherwise dictionary.

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:47:27 PM EDT

[#7]

Online Dictionary

For example, I looked up "POINK" and got nothing

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:47:53 PM EDT

[#8]

Sometimes I even use a dictionary to look it up, but usually I just head straight to the Google.

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:47:54 PM EDT

[#9]

Look it up.

Then spend another 30 minutes surfing from word to word.

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:48:47 PM EDT

[#10]

Not many words escape me, especially not on a firearms board, but some of the acronyms are a little tough.

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:48:53 PM EDT

[#11]

What is the meaning of this "context" word you speak of?

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:48:54 PM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:
Say you are reading a book and a word comes up you don't know and can't fully understand given the context...what do you do?

Look it up?

Skip over it?

Being a Marine I spend more time celebrating words that I do know understand.

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:48:56 PM EDT

[#13]

Pick up a thinner book.

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:50:15 PM EDT

[#14]

yup. I google it. just in case:

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:50:50 PM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
Not many words escape me, especially not on a firearms board, but some of the acronyms are a little tough.

Yeah, I haven't come across many words that confound me here...but some of the reading I have been doing lately, primarily for class, has necessitated a dictionary be nearby.

Damn you, early 20th century, British philosophers/intellectuals.

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:51:10 PM EDT

[#16]

I look it up. If I'm not near a dictionary I write it down so I can look it up later.
What really pisses me off though is when I forget what a word means that I've used before and looked up.

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:51:23 PM EDT

[#17]

Yes. I have about 4 dictionarys around house, including a behemoth Webster's that could be used to kill a man.
Online, I like Merriam-Webster

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:52:20 PM EDT

[#18]

I look 'em up, I want to know.

Language is the tool, communication is the job.

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:53:31 PM EDT

[#19]

If I'm reading anything by William F. Buckley an open dictionary is at my side.

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:54:39 PM EDT

[#20]

We usually have a dictionary handy from playing scrabble a lot. Otherwise I look on the computer but not always right away.

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:54:42 PM EDT

[#21]

Look it up. Always. Ask my kids....

Posted: 3/27/2009 2:55:29 PM EDT

[#22]

look it up

Posted: 3/27/2009 3:04:01 PM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
Look it up.

Posted: 3/27/2009 3:06:22 PM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:

Quoted:
google

This!

That.

Posted: 3/27/2009 3:09:20 PM EDT

[#25]

Ask here. It's good to get a wide range of wrong opinions.

Posted: 3/27/2009 3:12:14 PM EDT

[#26]

I Google it... if it is just a word, the first hit is usually a dictionary site.

- BG

Posted: 3/27/2009 3:19:38 PM EDT

[#27]

Highlight, right-click, search google for....

Posted: 3/27/2009 3:22:18 PM EDT

[#28]

Quoted:
Look it up.

Then spend another 30 minutes surfing from word to word.

Lol. I do that too.Sometimes I forget what I was reading in the first place.

Posted: 3/27/2009 3:34:43 PM EDT

[#29]

Dictionary.com

Posted: 3/27/2009 4:50:15 PM EDT

[#30]

m-w.com, these days.

Once upon a time, I was an editor in the publishing industry in NYC. One author stands head and shoulders above the rest in the workout he gave me. If I was working on one of his manuscripts, the large Webster's Third International, Unabridged, stayed next to me. (To put that in perspective, I used to track/submit new words and usages for submission to the dictionaries. I have a "fairly good" vocabulary.)

Ian McDonald, who has since won a Hugo Award for his work, is a gentleman and a scholar, and as a student of language I found his work a pleasure to read. He worked me harder –– vocabulary-wise –– than any author before or since.

Posted: 3/27/2009 4:54:03 PM EDT

[#31]

Look it up .....most of the time at least

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - If you come across a word you don't know, do you take the time to look it up in the dictionary?

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